How to Use Canva for Blog and Web Design

In this busy online space that we live in, a boring blog will not get you very far.

If you are starting a blog or run an existing blog, Canva makes it easy to turn your blog’s design from blah to beautiful.

After I launched the YCG blog, I wanted to add some pizzaz to it but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on branding. So I turned to Canva to to do it.

In Canva, I got superrrr creative and cranked out different images to brand things like:

My blogs sidebar

My blog post graphics

Pinnable Graphics in Pinterest

and more….

What I loved most about Canva is this:

There are hundred’s of pre-made templates that you can download and use to DIY your blog’s design.

Canva for Bloggers Examples

If you are struggling with web design, you can use Canva to design certain elements of your site. As an example, things like images for the front of your site, your blog’s newsletter header and a logo too!

In short, if you have zero web design or blog branding skills, Canva makes it easy to inject creative blog design that gives your site a professional appearance that your visitors will appreciate.

I present to you 10 types of visual designs you can create with canva for your blog with some examples.

Blog Post Image Template

Sidebar Graphics

Blog Email Newsletter Header

Lead Magnet

Content Upgrades

Email Opt-In Mockups

Blog Post Graphics

Blog Post Infographics

Tip-O-Graphics

List-O-Graphics

Blog Media Kit

CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)

How to Use Canva for Branding

Consistent branding is imperative to establishing an unforgettable online presence.

Here’s the dealio…

With so many brands vying for attention online, it is damn near impossible to stand out ….

UNLESS…your branding is on point.

Before I learned how to use Canva for branding on the visual front things were all over the place. At times, it looked like my brand was ran by four different people.

I made a lot of mistakes with my branding like:

I tried using too many fonts in my designs

Every time that I created a new blog post, I designed a different image for each one

My color choices were…not well put together

Brand confusion and frustration with designing branded graphics led me to Canva!

Now:

I loveeeee Creative Market…like for realz. They have a lot of pre-made templates that I have purchased in the past for various branding projects.

But:

In an effort to scale back my expenses and create branded materials the “lean way”, I turned to Canva to create a lot of the items in my brand arsenal.

Instead of buying brand templates from Creative Market, I used Canva to design them.

After I got a handle on what consistent visual branding meant, I amped up my branding efforts using some of the templates from Canva.

The more confident I grew with using Canva for branding, I started using the tool to design brand collateral for my clients and web design projects.

I loved doing this two for two main reasons:

Canva gives my clients creative control over their designs and let me share designs with them.

With the sharing feature, my clients can make updates to their brand collateral and etc., as they need to.

Ten brand items that you can design beautifully with Canva include:

Logo

Brand Identity Kit

Stationery

Brand Color Scheme

Mood Board

Brochure Design

Project Proposal Template

Note Cards

Gift Certificates

Style Guide

CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)

From a marketing and promotions perspective, most of the digital assets that you have in your arsenal will need some form of visual representation.

Canva for Digital Marketing Examples

If you have a blog, visual graphics bring your content to life. With your email newsletter, creating a branded email newsletter header will dress up your email marketing campaigns.

That eBook that you are thinking about writing or a freebie that you want to promote online to grow your email list need “mockups” to make them tangible and more real to your audience.

And let’s not forget about paid advertisements like Facebook Ads.

To promote your ads on Facebook, you have to use a graphic to promote your ads.

Fortunately for you, Canva has a ready-made graphics like Facebook Ad templates that you can use to design your ads in minutes. Heck, I was surprised to discover that the folks over at Digital Marketer have used Canva to design their ads.

In the spirit of digital marketing, here are 10 types of designs that you can create with Canva:

Media Kit

Digital Marketing Kit

Presentations

Paid Advertisement Graphics

(Digital) Flip Book

Online Based Event Graphics

Fillable PDF’s

List Building Offer Graphics

Inspirational Quote Graphics

Discount Promo Images

CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)

How to Use Canva to Design Print Materials

Digital Marketing is all the rage these days, but there may come a time when you will need to use print marketing collateral to promote your business.

As with mockups of digital products, print marketing materials will help bring your offline marketing assets to life in print form.

I know that you may be thinking:

“Are people even using print materials anymore”?

The answer:

Of course they are still being used

Think about it….

When you attend live events like conferences, seminars and other networking events, what kinds of marketing collateral do you see people using?

Print marketing and promo materials right?

Attending these types of events present the perfect opportunity for you to share your print marketing materials with attendees.

With Canva, designing branded print materials for your business is a breeze!

The biggest perk to using Canva is this:

You don’t have to start from scratch to design things. Canva has a lot of done-for-you templates that you can use to create branded print materials for your business.

The only thing that you will need to do is add your brand color schemes, logo, and fonts to the templates and that’s pretty much it.

In a matter of minutes, you can design gorgeous print materials for your business that you can proudly show off to the world. Ten types of branded print materials that you can make with Canva for your business include:

Letterhead

Checklists

Invitations

Resumes

Coupons

Business Cards

Flyers

Stationery

Banners

Magazines

CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)

How to Use Canva to Design Course Collateral

Online courses are extremely popular nowadays.

It seems like nearly everyone and their uncles are getting into the game and I can understand why.

For starters the online course market is a 107 Billion Dollar Industry that is showing no signs of slowing down. Secondly, online courses make it easy for you to teach what you know and profit from it.

I can tell you from experience as an infopreneur:

There is nothing like waking up, checking your email inbox and finding that someone has purchased one of your courses while you were sleeping.

Then there’s the mega success reports that you’ve probably read from course creators like Melyssa Griffin and Pat Flynn. What I love about reading their stories is this:

Income diversification is super important and passive income is very MUCH possible!

This what online courses offer to infopreneurs and digital preneurs too!

Canva for Course Collateral Examples

When I decided to start making online courses though, I struggled with figuring out what kind of collateral I was going to add to them.

My searched landed me on Pinterest as I saw that a lot of folks were adding things like:

Worksheets

Workbooks and …

Printables ….

to their courses as collateral to give to their students.

As I got more into infopreneurship and course creation I didn’t want to spend a lot of money to create my course materials.

So I HAD to get creative…

Canva came to the rescue!

Now…I use Canva to create all of the collateral for the courses and digital products that I sell from my blog.

If you’re looking for some ideas for collateral and marketing materials you can create for your courses in Canva, here is a list to consider:

Workbooks

Worksheets

Fillable PDF’s

Course Promo Graphics

Course Animated GIF Graphics

Course Testimonial Graphics from Students

Course Sales Page Graphics

Course Completion Certificates for Students

Product Preview Graphics

Course Mockup Graphics

CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)

How to Use Canva for Freelance and Consulting Designs

If you are a freelancer, consultant or coach, then Canva is an excellent resource to use in your business.

As a service based business provider, there will come a time when you will need to create branded digital and offline marketing materials.

Case in point:

After I decided to add web design services to my list of service offerings, I needed a way to create specific branded materials that I could give to my new clients.

Here again, I didn’t want to hire someone to design these materials for me.

So I turned to Canva to get the job done.

As an example, the services listings sheets that I give to prospective clients…I used Canva to design it.

The Welcome Kit that I give to new my new clients in the onboarding process, I used Canva to create it.

The Services promo images that I market out on social media…you guessed it, I used Canva to Design those too.

So if you are starting a service based business or run one, Canva affords you the ability to design all kinds of goodies for your clients.

Things like toolkitsto onboard new clients or welcome kits to your new clients are easy to design.

Examples of resources that you can design for your service based business with Canva include:

Services Listings Sheet

Marketing Kit for Prospective Clients

Brand Identity Kit

Welcome Kit to New Clients

Testimonial Booklet

Digital eGuide Testimonial Graphics

Project Proposal Template

Client Workbook or Resource Guide

Slide Deck Presentations for Prospects

Price Listings Sheets and Overview

CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)

How to Use Canva to Design + Create Products

Do you run a blog, website or some sort of web property that you want to sell products from?

Are you looking for a resource that you can use to design your products with?

If you are, then learning how to use Canva will give you a jumpstart to your creating digital + print products that you can design and monetize.

True story:

Before I started using Canva to design the majority of the products that I sell from my blog, I tried used programs like MS Word and Google Docs.

But..I didn’t like using these programs for several reasons:

On the design front, MS Word is very limited to me

Word doesnt have enough built in design features and things that you could use to accessorize your designs

Google docs is great for creating content…but like MS Word has limited design capabilities

I couldn’t get as creative as I wanted to…..

So…

I stopped using Word and leveraged Canva to design my products.

In fact, I used Canva to design all the products that I sell from my store. The workbook covers, the interior pages, eBooks you name it…

I used Canva to create them…

And….

Whenever I launch new products and need to design promo images for them…I.use.Canva. The program is seriously friggin addictive!

If you need some ideas for products that you can create with Canva, here’s a list to get you started:

Product Preview Graphics

Product Launch Graphics

Product Cover Templates

Digital eBooks

eGuides

eKits

Kindle Book Covers

Product Mockups

Product Promo Graphics

Guidebooks

CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)

How To Use Canva to Design Printables

Who doesn’t love a good printable?

They are super nifty resources that help with productivity, organization, tracking and more.

Maybe you’re thinking of designing printables to sell from an Etsy store.

Or…

Perhaps you want to design printables to help you organize a certain area of your life. Either way, you can most certainly use Canva to do it.

Believe it or not, Canva has loads of ready-made printables available that you can use in various ways like:

Cheat sheets that you give away from your blog as content upgrades

To-Do-Lists that you can leverage as an entrepreneur to keep you on track every day

Forms that you can use to take down information at events you are hosting

Calendars…to keep track of important dates, times, events and etc.,

Goal Planning Sheets – to help you track business or personal goals

Canva for Printables Examples

I’m all for digital tracking tools and stuff but I gotta admit that there is nothing like writing something down and looking at it every day to remind you of what you are working on.

Last year, I created a #GoalDigger Worksheet using Canva, printed it out and put it on my board in my office to hold myself accountable of the goals I’ve set for my business every month.

And you know what…

I am sooo glad that I did because this one little printable keeps me accountable every month and helps me stay on task.

A few types of printables that you can design with Canva are:

Checklists

To Do Lists

Shopping Lists

Calendars

Planners

Organizers

Worksheets

Task Trackers

Forms

Charts

CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)

How to Use Canva to Design Materials for Live Events and Conferences

If you’ve ever put on a live event, then you already know that things can get very expensive. There’s the location to think about, speakers you need to invite, food, marketing materials to produce and more.

I’ve heard repeatedly that the PRIMARY objectives for holding live events is this:

To get as many people into the event as possible…

To do this, you will need to market your event like crazy…both from a digital and offline perspective.

The thing is with live events (from what I’m told), marketing the event is the greatest challenge that folks have and the costs associated with it.

Canva to Design Materials for Live Events Examples

To keep your marketing expenses low for your events, you can leverageCanvato create your marketing, promotions and other collateral.

That’s rightttt folks!

Everything from conference registration forms to the flyers that you use to market the event, you can fire up Canva and use the program to design your items.

But:

It doesn’t have to stop there, you can also create your digital marketing media too for your events and items like these:

Swag Bag Inserts

Notebooks

Event Program

Event Specific Notecards

Event Agenda

Conference Flyers

Event Invitations

Event Digital Promo Graphics –

Conference Registration Forms

Food and Drink Menu

FREE PRINTABLE PLUS EPIC BONUS!

Download the Printable and PDF Version of this List (Plus BONUS list of 10 graphics to add to your visual arsenal)

As you can see from this list, Canva is an amazing tool that people in different industries can use for all types of visual and graphic design projects. I hope that this list serves as an inspiration to get your creative juices flowing on what you can do with Canva!

Ready to Start Designing Visual Designs and Graphics with Canva Like a CHAMP?

Two things:

#1: You can check out this Free Canva webinar to learn How to Design Killer Graphics with Canva for your Business

#2: If you want access to a resource that shows you how to design stunning images, brand graphics, course collateral and more with confidence, Lights Canva Action lays it all out for you! Check it out here.

I want to hear from you!

Are you using Canva for Visual design? If so, how are you using it and what tips did you like most from this list? Pleaseeee leave your comments below. Thanks soooo much!

Kim George#ACanvaFanatic!

Oh and Here’s a Nifty Infographic that you can download and use as a reference! And yes, I used Canva to Design it…LOL!

Kim

Kim, YourChicGeek is a tech savvy diva + founder of YourChicGeek.com. She is passionate about teaching small biz's how to go from unnoticed to unstoppable online using tech and digital marketing. Kim has created several online courses and DIY trainings in the Blazing Branding Academy that help small businesses flourish online. You can contact Kim to hop on a quick 15 minute call to chat about your digital marketing goals.

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Hello there! I am Kim George, YourChicGeek and I'm here to help you go from Unnoticed to Unstoppable on the web with make TECH and digital marketing. Let's Get To It!